HBO Buys TV Rights To 'The Central Park Effect': SXSW

HBO Documentary Films has acquired the domestic TV rights to THE CENTRAL PARK EFFECT, it was announced today by HBO and Submarine Entertainment. A 2012 SXSW selection in Documentary Feature Competition, the film will debut on HBO this summer.

Featuring Chris Cooper, Jonathan Franzen and Starr Saphir, among others, the film is directed and produced by Jeffrey Kimball and executive produced by Pamela Hogan and Tom Casciato. The deal was negotiated by Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment on behalf of the filmmakers with HBO Documentary Films.

THE CENTRAL PARK EFFECT reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green and the equally colorful New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration. The film focuses on seven main subjects who regularly visit the park and have found a profound connection with this hidden natural world.

“HBO is the ideal home for THE CENTRAL PARK EFFECT and gives us the ability to tell an important story to millions of people,” says filmmaker Jeffrey Kimball. “Even though it’s set in the middle of New York City, this is a story about people’s connection to nature. It’s important for us to realize that as the world becomes more urbanized, nature doesn’t have to entirely disappear from cities.”